Canadian frigate to escort food aid to Somalia

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Canada is deploying a frigate off
Somalia to escort U.N. World Food Program (WFP) ships carrying
vital aid and protect them from pirate attacks, the Canadian
government said on Wednesday.

"Food supplies are urgently needed in Somalia but
deteriorating security has made delivery difficult by land and
sea," Canadian Defence Minister Peter Gordon MacKay said in the
statement.

"Canada is stepping up to the plate by tasking (the
frigate) Ville de Quebec with the role of escorting World Food
Program ships to ensure their safe arrival at designated
ports."

Canada is seeking formal authorization from Somalia's
interim government to escort the WFP vessels into the Horn of
Africa nation's territorial waters, the statement said.

The United Nations warned last month that food shipments to
Somalia were grinding to a halt as very few vessels were
willing to risk entering the country's pirate-infested waters.

The WFP called on governments to provide naval escorts,
saying that it had received no offers of naval protection since
late June, when a Dutch frigate escorted a WFP vessel safely
into the capital Mogadishu.

France and Denmark had also previously provided escorts,
and on Wednesday the U.N. agency warmly welcomed the Canadian
move.

"This is a critical moment when more food is needed for a
growing number of hungry," WFP's country director for Somalia,
Peter Goossens, said in a separate statement.
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